


stop the music, roll the tapes

by naeildo



Series: 300 word balloons [5]
Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 18:54:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21433063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naeildo/pseuds/naeildo
Summary: Delicate confessions.
Relationships: Im Nayeon/Myoui Mina
Series: 300 word balloons [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1345957
Comments: 9
Kudos: 190





	stop the music, roll the tapes

  
It's not that Nayeon is nervous. Well, it's not that she's _not_ nervous, because she's not usually the one doing the confessing - in fact, she's usually the one sending the other person away as gently as possible and hoping desperately that they don't cry while she tries to say no without really saying it outright. It's a strange position, the one she's in now. Both figuratively and physically, because she spilled orange juice on her side of the couch while pacing around and didn't notice until it was too late. Now she has to sit on Jeongyeon's pristine side, foot tapping endlessly against the legs of their coffee table. Now would be a good time to learn how to run _forward_ in time, Nayeon thinks, just as the door opens and Nayeon hears the telltale pitter-patter of Mina's vans against the hardwood floor.  
  
Nayeon takes a deep breath. Schools her face into a bright smile.  
  
  
  
  
  
So, _take one_:  
  
"Mina!" Nayeon says, and winces a little at how too-loud her voice sounds. "You're back early?" It comes out as a half-question more than a statement, and Mina stares back at Nayeon, eyes crinkling at the corners in confusion, hand on the strap of her backpack and a packet of something dangling from the fingers of her other hand.  
  
"Professor Kim had to rush off for a family dinner," Mina says, smiling, sweeping her hair behind her shoulder in one quick motion. She peels off her shoes and pads forward to drop her bag against the couch, raising the plastic bag in her hand. "Are the others here? I bought some dumplings on the way back." Nayeon likes her the way her hair stands frizzy from the breeze outside.  
  
"I don't know," Nayeon says, as nonchalantly as possible, as if she hadn't planned all of this - Jeongyeon's in her room blazing at her essay that's due at 9am the next morning; Sana's out with Momo at some dance workshop, and Nayeon is here, sitting in the middle of the apartment pretending to watch TV so that she can catch Mina alone. "Think they're all kind of busy," she says, and watches the expression on Mina's face change, softly and carefully before her lips pull into a smile.  
  
"Guess it's just the two of us then," Mina says, rolling the plastic bag down to reveal a container of freshly steamed dumplings, and Nayeon can't tell if she's imagining the enthusiasm in Mina's voice - some kind of projection onto her so Nayeon doesn't faint from nervousness.  
  
She sticks her hand out under Mina before the girl can sit down on the couch.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I spilled juice on that," Nayeon says, embarrassedly, and Mina doesn't look annoyed - that's always the worst part, that every mess Nayeon creates seems to make Mina fond. It's confusing. "You can -" Nayeon stops herself before saying something stupid like _you can sit on my lap_. "Um, sit here," Nayeon says, getting up from her seat.  
  
"I'll take the floor," Mina says, and Nayeon lunges forward, butt plopping onto their carpet. Mina lets out a laugh then, loud and with abandon, and Nayeon can't seem to feel whatever dull pain she's supposed to feel, head heavy with the sound of Mina's laugh.  
  
"You should take the _couch_," Nayeon says, again. Her tailbone stings, belatedly. "You had a long day."  
  
Mina smiles, soft, again, and Nayeon wonders if the other side of her lips are quirking up in the same way, if the eyelashes on her right eye are fluttering the same way her left ones are. If the light from their living room lamp hits her face the same way. Then Mina's hand closes around Nayeon's, and Nayeon fights the sharp breath that she wants to take - it lodges somewhere in her chest as Mina sits down beside her, bare knee knocking against Nayeon's own before coming to settle on it.  
  
"I've spent a whole day sitting down," the younger girl says, and stretches her arms above her head exaggeratedly for emphasis. "We can share the floor."  
  
"How - how was class?" Nayeon says, because how does one start with this? _Mina, I think you're the most beautiful girl in the world_. Too superficial. _Mina, you're the most capable person I've ever met_. Too empty and non-specific. Also not true because she knows Jihyo. Why didn't she plan this beforehand?  
  
"Good," Mina says, splitting her wooden chopsticks and rubbing them between her hands. "I got to use the harder words you taught me a few days ago. Remember _effervescent_? Think I probably got full marks just because I complimented Professor Kim with that in our roleplay."  
  
_Mina, you're the most effervescent_ _person I've ever met_?  
  
"I'm glad I could help with something," Nayeon comments, recalling more vividly that she'd taught Mina the wrong page of the grammar textbook until they reached the end and Mina had touched her arm softly, commenting that she wasn't too sure if that was in the syllabus for the next class.  
  
"You helped a lot, _unnie_," Mina says, softly, a careful arm winding around Nayeon's shoulders to pull her in. "Thank you." Her thigh is pressed up against Nayeon's, warm and present, fingers curled around the blade of Nayeon's shoulder. Eyes bright as they dart from the TV to Nayeon's face.  
  
She can do this. "Mina," Nayeon says, finally. She's not usually this cowardly. She's faced Professor Im in Stats class. This is nothing at all. "Mina, I-"  
  
The door behind them flings open, and Mina springs apart from Nayeon.  
  
"GUESS WHO WON A HUNDRED THOUSAND-WON VOUCHER AT DANCE CLASS?"  
  
Minatozaki Sana. Minatozaki Sana, whose batch of _kombucha_ will now be spiked with the strongest laxatives that Nayeon can buy for the next two weeks.  
  
  
  
  
  
_Take two_:  
  
"Mina!" Nayeon says, pushing off the couch to pad to where Mina is, palms up to receive the other girl's bag.  
  
"There's no need for that, _unnie_," Mina protests, but lets Nayeon slide the straps off her shoulder anyway. From up close, Mina's cheeks are still red from the winter wind. Nayeon's stupid, impulsive brain reaches up to press to her right hand to Mina's left cheek, and Mina startles, jerking out of Nayeon's hold, eyelids fluttering in the backward motion.  
  
"Oh," Nayeon says. Ignores the sting that's rising in her chest. Mina is looking at her, eyes wide. "Sorry, I shouldn't have -"  
  
"No," Mina says, reaching out with her free hand to catch Nayeon's own. Her grey sock has only been pulled off halfway. It's an uncomfortable position, and Nayeon would feel more awkward about it if she didn't feel like her heart was racing into hyper-speed. "It was - I'm -" Mina says, softly. "Thank you. It was very warm. I - don't mind at all," Mina says, and pulls the rest of her sock off. Mina stares at her in the small confines just behind the door, and Nayeon stares back.  
  
_No time like the present. No time like the present, Nayeon_ -  
  
"I'm gonna go put these down," Mina gestures awkwardly at her plastic bag, and Nayeon's words get clogged in her throat.  
  
"Right," Nayeon says, trailing behind Mina, lining up her lightweight bag carefully against the couch.  
  
"I brought dumpl-" Mina says, spinning around at the very same moment Nayeon is crossing the threshold towards the other side, and Mina's face ends up inches away from Nayeon's own. "Dumplings," Mina breathes, craning backwards, the back of her waist pressed against the kitchen island.  
  
"Minari," Nayeon breathes, softly, and it ghosts across Mina's cheek. "I-"  
  
Nayeon lifts her hand, and it snags against the kitchen island, which makes _Mina_ jerk, which topples the dumpling container that she'd just taken the lid off from and spilling red soy sauce all over the floor.  
  
Right. So -  
  
  
  
  
  
_Take three_:  
  
"Minari!" Grab the bag. Avoid the kitchen counter. Take Mina's hand.  
  
"We should go to your room," Nayeon says.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You need sleep," Nayeon says, tugging at Mina's fingers intertwined with hers.  
  
"Um, I haven't eaten," Mina protests weakly, already following along.  
  
"You can eat after you sleep," Nayeon says, quickly, and Mina shoots her a look so perplexed that Nayeon wonders if she should just call off this whole operation altogether.  
  
"_Unnie_, I haven't tidied my room," Mina says, more insistently this time, and Nayeon looks back at her. The tips of her ears are red.  
  
"It's fine," Nayeon says, slowing down. They're standing outside Mina's door. A _do not disturb_ sign hangs outside in mint green letters. Nayeon places her hands on Mina's arms. "Minari, your room is lovely. It's always pristine."  
  
Mina moves so that she's standing with her back to the door, shakes her head. It's a small motion. Her face is tilted towards the floor, and Nayeon doesn't miss the red blush that's crept onto her cheeks. "I make sure it's clean when you come over."  
  
Oh.  
  
"Minari," Nayeon says, thumbs rubbing careful circles into Mina's arms. Maybe she's going about this all wrong, and it's just making Mina uncomfortable. As if her feelings should take precedence over Mina's comfort. "We can stand outside if you want. Or - go back to your dumplings, whatever you want. It's okay. I'm sorry for pressuring you."  
  
Mina looks up. Presses her door open with her hand behind her back, and pulls Nayeon in until she hears the crack of what sounds like glass against the floor.  
  
  
  
  
_Take fou-_  
  
"Would you stop messing with the space-time continuum? You keep deleting the lines I just wrote down," Jeongyeon says, fingers in a vice-grip around Nayeon's arm, and Nayeon looks around to spot Mina's potted cactus in mid-air, hurtling fruitlessly to the ground.  
  
"How did you get in here?"  
  
Jeongyeon rolls her eyes. "I can stop time, remember?"  
  
"Okay, well, no need to show off. Can you pick that cactus up?"  
  
Jeongyeon blinks. Looks over her shoulder.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I have to tell Mina something and that little cactus - what's his name again -"  
  
"Ryan," Jeongyeon supplies, brows raised in the kind of face she makes where she's torn between confusion and not wanting to expend further energy to understand Nayeon.  
  
"Right. Should have remembered that. Ryan is kind of ruining my plans."  
  
"What plans?"  
  
"Just... _plans_! Doesn't it like, hurt you physically or something to stop time?"  
  
"I have three minutes before it starts bothering me."  
  
"Okay, well, if you could just pick Ryan up-"  
  
"You know Mina is a clairvoyant, right?"  
  
"So? She doesn't read people's minds without their consent, Jeongyeon. Ever heard of Ethics 101?"  
  
"I don't need superpowers to tell that you're constantly trying to superimpose Mina's face onto the lead character of whatever drama we're watching."  
  
Nayeon flushes. "You don't know that."  
  
"And also you told me when you were drunk that one time."  
  
"The clock is ticking, Jeongyeon," Nayeon reminds her, making a little clicking noise with her teeth.  
  
"The point is, Mina asked me and I told her, okay? She's just waiting for you to stop being an idiot."  
  
Nayeon's stomach bottoms out. "What?"  
  
Jeongyeon grins. "Three minutes!"  
  
  
  
  
_Take five_:  
  
"Minari," Nayeon says. Leaves the bag at the door and the dumplings on the floor. Mina doesn't take off her shoes.  
  
"What are you doing?" Mina says. Nayeon takes a deep breath. Takes Mina's hands in her own. Twines their fingers together. Her hands are cold.  
  
"I like you." It rushes out in a breath, and Mina's face twists into something that Nayeon hasn't seen before, caught between a laugh and a gasp.  
  
"I like your - effervescence," Nayeon says, and that pulls a laugh from Mina, a full-belly one that makes her lean into Nayeon's shoulder, nose catching on the loose fabric of her T-shirt. "I like that you clean your room before I come in. I like that you wander out when I come home just to make sure that I'm back safe. I like the way you laugh at me, like you're laughing with me instead, and I like that you asked me to teach you Korean even when I'm so shit at it that you have to point out that I'm doing things wrong. I like that -"  
  
Then Mina is leaning in, heels of her vans lifting off the floor, and Nayeon doesn't get a word in after that.  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
